BILLY STEEL IN TARTAN - 1953

I isolated the Billy Steel image from the 1982-83 handbook and tidied it up a bit, because this is the only photo I have of him "in action" wearing the DFC tartan shirt. The picture would have been taken on Dundee's tour of South Africa in 1953.
Don't know if it's just a trick of the light, but when I was cleaning the photo I noticed it looked like Billy was wearing tartan/argyle socks too. If it is, then that's a piece of Dee strip trivia I never knew!

HUGH ROBERTSON - R.I.P.

HUGH ROBERTSON : 1939 - 2010
Dundee FC : 1957 - 1965

BOBBY COX - R.I.P.

BOBBY COX : 24/1/1934 - 20/2/2010
Dundee FC : 1956 - 1969

GEORGE "PUD" HILL - 15 YEARS A DEE

As a player, Pud was way before my time, his playing days at Dens being from 1940 to 1955. So although I never got to see his wing wizardry in action, I did actually get to meet him quite a few times. He used to drink in our local, The Boars Rock in Arbroath Road, and sat with us regularly. He had a great memory and told many DFC tales that had us all hooked, especially when he'd name-drop Billy Steel and so on. In fact one time we all ended up back at his house in Craigiebank for a wee New Year sing song! A really good guy.
He had plenty story telling material, his 15 years at Dens seeing him play in a total of 257 games.
Pud died in 2002, and this article from the Courier, Dec 2002, tells a bit about his talent.
Click image to enlarge.

DFC ILLUSTRATED HISTORY

This strip is from a publication from the 1950's. It illustrates the history of the club, featuring things like when Dundee played at Carolina Port in the 1890's, the team parading the Scottish Cup in 1910 and the Dee winning the Scottish League Cup in the 1950's.
Click on the image to view and read the details.

ALFIE BOYD - 1947 to 1953

A couple of rare cards from the late 40's featuring Alfie Boyd.
Alfie has links with Dundee FC going way back to when, as a kid, he used to be ball-boy at Dens.
He signed as a player in 1947 and played in the left back / centre half positions up till 1953, and notched up a grand total of 234 appearances for the club.
He will always be remembered for scoring the vital goal at Hampden when Dundee beat Rangers 3-2 in the Scottish League Cup final. Alfie heading in the winner with just a few seconds remaining!

1950'S BILLY STEEL CARD

The aptly named "Turf" cigarettes came out with the FAMOUS FOOTBALLERS card collection in the early 1950's. This is one of their original cards from the series featuring talented Dundee star, Billy Steel.
For you younger ones, back then a football used to be called a "tub", and a throw-in was called a "shy"...or "sheh" if ye wur oary!

DENS - BURSTING AT THE SEAMS

Health & Safety would have a fit if they saw this scene happen in this day and age. Dens at bursting point, fans precariously balanced on the fence. The picture, however, was taken in the 1950's when crowds of 30-40,000 were commonplace at Dens.
Photo by DC Thomson.Tints by GG.

DENS PARK - 1952

This aerial shot of Dens was taken in 1952. The only cover available at this time was still just at the main stand. 1952 saw us finish mid table and our average gate for the season was 20,500....but of course we did lift the Scottish League Cup that year.